nervure \NUR-vyoor\, noun:
A vein, as of a leaf or the wing of an insect.
It was a sorrel, between three and four years old, tall, svelte, with a straight back, a belly tight with muscles, thin legs wrapped up in a vigorous nervure and a small head.
-- Francisco Coloane, Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World
We walked along a corridor affected by the regular spacing of the trees, beneath a sort of dais for which the framework was made of delicate leaf nervure.
-- J. H. Matthews, The Custom-House Of Desire: A Half-Century of Surrealist Stories
Nervure is French for "rib."
Monday, August 15, 2011
chaptalize \SHAP-tuh-lahyz\, verb:
chaptalize \SHAP-tuh-lahyz\, verb:
To increase the alcohol in a wine by adding sugar.
A proprietor who chaptalizes juice or ameliorates juice or wine, or both, shall maintain a record of the operation and the transaction date.
-- U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 27, Alcohol, Tobacco Products
They chaptalize, they blend, fudge their appellations, water down with lesser stuff.
-- Peter Lewis, Dead in the Dregs: A Babe Stern Mystery
Chaptalize comes from the French chaptaliser, which is in turn named for the French chemist J. A. Chaptal
To increase the alcohol in a wine by adding sugar.
A proprietor who chaptalizes juice or ameliorates juice or wine, or both, shall maintain a record of the operation and the transaction date.
-- U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 27, Alcohol, Tobacco Products
They chaptalize, they blend, fudge their appellations, water down with lesser stuff.
-- Peter Lewis, Dead in the Dregs: A Babe Stern Mystery
Chaptalize comes from the French chaptaliser, which is in turn named for the French chemist J. A. Chaptal
amaranthine \am-uh-RAN-thin\, adjective:
amaranthine \am-uh-RAN-thin\, adjective:
1. Unfading; everlasting.
2. Of or like the amaranth flower.
3. Of purplish-red color.
Though she had been made an amaranthine immortal when she was twelve years of age, she'd had to wait for her extraordinary abilities until her body matured to its most perfect state before fully transforming.
-- Kim Lenox, Darker Than Night
It made him jealous to imagine them lost in this amaranthine profundity.
-- Sir Compton Mackenzie, Sinister Street
Amaranthine is a form of the Greek amarantos, "everlasting," ascribed to an imaginary flower that never fades.
1. Unfading; everlasting.
2. Of or like the amaranth flower.
3. Of purplish-red color.
Though she had been made an amaranthine immortal when she was twelve years of age, she'd had to wait for her extraordinary abilities until her body matured to its most perfect state before fully transforming.
-- Kim Lenox, Darker Than Night
It made him jealous to imagine them lost in this amaranthine profundity.
-- Sir Compton Mackenzie, Sinister Street
Amaranthine is a form of the Greek amarantos, "everlasting," ascribed to an imaginary flower that never fades.
willowwacks \WIL-oh-waks\, noun:
willowwacks \WIL-oh-waks\, noun:
A wooded, uninhabited area.
There aren't many airports in Eastern Canada; you look at one like Upper Blackville, out there in the spruce-and-fir willowwacks, and wonder what it's doing there.
-- The AOPA pilot: Voice of General Aviation, Volume 37
Sure there were difficult moments, like an awkward fall below Texas Pass that twisted my previously broken ankle the wrong way, or 30 minutes lost on a wrong turn due to trail that disappeared in a stream, or a willowwacks that just wouldn't end; but overall today was a great day.
A wooded, uninhabited area.
There aren't many airports in Eastern Canada; you look at one like Upper Blackville, out there in the spruce-and-fir willowwacks, and wonder what it's doing there.
-- The AOPA pilot: Voice of General Aviation, Volume 37
Sure there were difficult moments, like an awkward fall below Texas Pass that twisted my previously broken ankle the wrong way, or 30 minutes lost on a wrong turn due to trail that disappeared in a stream, or a willowwacks that just wouldn't end; but overall today was a great day.
billet \BIL-it\, verb:
billet \BIL-it\, verb:
1. To provide or obtain lodging.
2. To direct (a soldier) by ticket, note, or verbal order, where to lodge.
noun:
1. Lodging for a soldier, student, etc., as in a private home or nonmilitary public building.
2. A small chunk of wood; a short section of a log, especially one cut for fuel.
If you do not billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order here all the troops in North America.
-- Francis Parkman, David Levin, France and England in North America
Now worn, harassed, and overworked, he could give Smith-Dorrien no news of Haig's Corps which was expected to billet that night at Landrecies, twelve miles east of Le Cateau.
-- Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, The Guns of August
Billet stems from the French billet, "official register." The word relates to the English bill.
1. To provide or obtain lodging.
2. To direct (a soldier) by ticket, note, or verbal order, where to lodge.
noun:
1. Lodging for a soldier, student, etc., as in a private home or nonmilitary public building.
2. A small chunk of wood; a short section of a log, especially one cut for fuel.
If you do not billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order here all the troops in North America.
-- Francis Parkman, David Levin, France and England in North America
Now worn, harassed, and overworked, he could give Smith-Dorrien no news of Haig's Corps which was expected to billet that night at Landrecies, twelve miles east of Le Cateau.
-- Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, The Guns of August
Billet stems from the French billet, "official register." The word relates to the English bill.
mundify \MUHN-duh-fahy\, verb:
mundify \MUHN-duh-fahy\, verb:
To purge or purify.
The cleric, fatigued and mumpish, scolded her, saying that a woman of her burdensome years should return home and mundify her morphewed sins.
-- Edward Dahlberg, The Olive of Minerva: Or, The Comedy of a Cuckold
Vigorous efforts to mundify old nasty habits should find priority as a substruction on which the edifice of the efforts of humanising the police should be built.
-- Praveen Kumar, Indian Police
Mundify is built from two Latin roots, mundi-, "to clean," and ficare, "to do."
To purge or purify.
The cleric, fatigued and mumpish, scolded her, saying that a woman of her burdensome years should return home and mundify her morphewed sins.
-- Edward Dahlberg, The Olive of Minerva: Or, The Comedy of a Cuckold
Vigorous efforts to mundify old nasty habits should find priority as a substruction on which the edifice of the efforts of humanising the police should be built.
-- Praveen Kumar, Indian Police
Mundify is built from two Latin roots, mundi-, "to clean," and ficare, "to do."
holus-bolus \HOH-luhs-BOH-luhs\, verb:
holus-bolus \HOH-luhs-BOH-luhs\, verb:
To cleanse.
He advised her to make plans and stick to them, rather than letting things happen holus bolus.
-- Carol Windley, Home Schooling: Stories
About midnight it crashed over the edge, holus bolus, into the sea a couple of hundred feet below.
-- Vernon Knowles, The Street of Queer Houses and Other Tales
Holus-bolus comes from a mock-Latin rhyming compound based on the phrase "whole bolus."
To cleanse.
He advised her to make plans and stick to them, rather than letting things happen holus bolus.
-- Carol Windley, Home Schooling: Stories
About midnight it crashed over the edge, holus bolus, into the sea a couple of hundred feet below.
-- Vernon Knowles, The Street of Queer Houses and Other Tales
Holus-bolus comes from a mock-Latin rhyming compound based on the phrase "whole bolus."
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